Really Want to switch but will LMDE Support my 8 Gigs of ram

[jsteele31]

I just wanted to know if the current release of Linux Mint Debian Edition supports 8Gigs of ram, I know its a 32bit version so probably not but worth asking haha.

[kwisher]

After installing and then doing a full system update you can install the bigmem kernel with synaptic. My work machine has 6gb and this works with no problems. If you google for "debian pae" you should find the same instructions I did.

[gotjazz]

also in devember there is a 64 bit version coming, isn't there?

But another question: have your 8 gig ever been full?

[gjringo]

I just wanted to know if the current release of Linux Mint Debian Edition supports 8Gigs of ram, I know its a 32bit version so probably not but worth asking haha.

That is a good question to ask as their seems to be a lot of misconception as to memory usage and how much is required to run intensive applications. Have a look at this comparison from Phoronix

"Coming up in our forums was a testing request to compare the performance of Linux between using 32-bit, 32-bit PAE, and 64-bit kernels. This is coming after Linus Torvalds has spoke of 25% performance differences between kernels using CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G and those without this option that allows 32-bit builds to address up to 4GB of physical RAM on a system. We decided to compare the performance of the 32-bit, 32-bit PAE, and 64-bit kernels on a modern desktop system and here are the results." >http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_32_pae&num=1

[kwisher]

What is possible, and the reason I use the PAE/Bigmem kernels, is that you can stuff an existing 32-bit machine with the max ram pretty cheaply, if you have a need for it. In my case on my work machine at our local school system, I run Mint Debian with 6gb ram and then have multiple VirtualBox VM's running at the same time. The option to purchase a new 64-bit machine was out of the question due to budget constraints.

[jsteele31]

I like the idea of this Pae but installing a custom kernel is not something I want to risk haha. I guess I will have to wait for the 86_64 Version to be released. Is there an available testing version? I am really excited to make the switch with the new Debian version coming out.

[TBABill]

I would not really call the bigmem kernel a custom kernel. Each distro I have used appears to have a PAE kernel version so users with 4GB or more of RAM can enjoy full use of their RAM on a 32 bit install. Kernel updates will still be available and you can bet if they release an updated kernel, there will also be a PAE/bigmem to match. Breakage shouldn't really be a concern just using a PAE kernel versus the standard 32 bit kernel. And once the 64 bit kernel is out lots of us will be jumping on it, especially since the Ubuntu comparison was run by Phoronix that clearly illustrates speed improvements with identical hardware from either the 32 bit or 32 bit PAE....versus the 64 bit. It just outperformed the 32 bit versions all the way around, sometimes by a negligible margin, but other times by a wide margin. Either way, documented proof once again of the gains to be realized by a 64 bit OS.